Huntress Ari
by ForeverNenaa
Summary: The adventures of young 12 years old Ari as she goes on to take the hunter exam. What is her goal after she gets her hunter's license? To go on and bring back her father that has started a life of villainy. Sounds easy right? Well, we will just have to see as she goes through trails of growth, power, friendship, and ...love with a certain young assassin?
1. The Beginning Starts Now

**Aria Amore here (my new alias that I'm going with from now on lol) and I'm back with this story new and rewritten now that I'm older and feel like I'm more experienced. Feel free to compare this first chapter to my old story because I think I've made a lot of good changes. If you want to read it you can go to this website:**

 _ **s/7933171/1/The-Missing-Piece**_

 **And without further ado, on to the story ^_^**

 **.**

 **.**

 **Oh wait, I think I have to do this first:**

 **DISCLAIMER- I ONLY OWN ARI (Do people even do this anymore XD)**

 **Well let me just stop and you can read it.**

 **ENJOY!**

The Beginning Starts Now

In the Republic of Padokia near the Dentora Region was the small village of Koharu. The day was bright and sunny as a little girl with long black hair, going down to her mid thigh, skipped down the road with a stack of ice cream one on top of the other, which threatened to fall off the cone it was in at any moment.

"Hey Ari!" a store lady yelled.

The girl, Ari, turned around and replied with a huge smile on her face, "Morning Mrs. Monika. What can I do for you." she asked while walking towards the storekeeper rapidly licking her ice cream.

"Are you going to stop by again later on to help me with my store?" the lady mentioned as Mrs. Monika said with a hopeful smile on her face only to have been met with a shake of the head from Ari smiling back sadly, "sorry but I can't, tomorrow I'm going to be taking the hunters exam and my mother says that I will have to go to sleep early if I don't want to be late for the blimp."

After saying that Ari turned around, took a big bite out of her ice cream, finishing it, and, with a quick wave goodbye, started to run out towards the forest. "Maybe another time, OH AND ARI, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Mrs. Monika yelled after her making Ari turn around and yell back, "Thank you!" as she continue to run off towards the forest with a huge grin on her face.

_In the Forest [Ari's POV]_

I walked through the forest until I got to a clearing with nothing but a giant rock in the center. It took me only a second or two to get up to the top of the gigantic rock which was around 10 meters high. I balanced myself at the top and began to meditate, seeing how it was also a part of my training and all.

 _Tomorrow I will be turning twelve and that will mean being able to participate in the Hunter Exams... to think that my mother was at one point in the same situation as me._ I took in a huge breath and sighed deeply, _but it seems it's my turn to do this thing… hopefully it will be fun._ And with that last thought I quickly started to focus on my task at hand…. to get stronger.

_Four Hours later_

Some hours later I relaxed my aura and stood up to stretch. When I opened my eyes I found that the sun was going down. Panicking for a second, I quickly hopped off the giant rock landing gracefully on the ground below. Then I looked down at my watch on my wrist…. Oh snap… "IM ALMOST LATE, I have two more minutes until I will truly be late and my house is a 30-minute walk from here OH-MY-GOSH!" I ran in circles while scratching my head, and then I stopped and positioned myself, focusing all of my energy into my feet. _I can do this._ _Three…..Two…. On~_ I was out the forest in a second.

-The Next Morning-

"ARI GET UP!" my mother yelled, laughing as I was startled and fell off my bed.

"But mooommy~, there is still-"I checked the time, sighing before continuing, "five hours until I actually have to leave for the blimp, can't I just sleep it," I said while laying down on the floor curling up into my blanket. "I'm still kind of sleepy," I said yawning in the process while closing my eyes again. "Well, you should have thought of that before you came back home five minutes late. NOW HURRY UP!" YAWN, "Ok, ok sure," I said as I felt myself drift back to sleep.

I heard her footsteps walk off and disappear. _Finally she is gone, maybe I can get a few more hours-_ , stopping my thoughts for a moment I could hear what sounded like someone was running towards me. Automatically reacting, I rolled to the side to avoid the impact and sat up opening up my eyes now wide awake and alert. Crouching in the same spot that I was just laying in a moment ago was my mother with a creepy smile on her face as she stood up straight looking at me. "I told you to get up didn't I", she said as she lunged at me.

Quickly untangling myself from my blanket, I jumped up off to the side and stood in a defensive stance as I waited for her next move. _A sparring match so early in the morning… how fun._ Smiling back at her I moved my body in a way in order to dodge my mother's attack. Finally reaching to the far side of my room, having nowhere else to go, I jumped out the window and turned my attention back to my mother as she came jumping out the window after me. Now feeling freer, I ran towards her and aimed a couple of my very own attacks at her, causing her to amuse me a bit by dodging for a while. I don't know how long we have been going at it back and forth, but seeming to have become bored with my sad attempts of an attack; my mother stopped dodging and caught my last punch. Reacting quickly, I brought up my other fist to hit her but she was able to catch that one as well. Now starting to panic, I brought up my leg as if to kick her, but stopped mid-attack and head-butted instead. Big mistake. She let my arms go as I slumped to the ground and curled up into a ball clenching my head. Feeling the intense pain as it washed through me I could almost feel myself start to tear up. "No fair, you can't strengthen your head like that" I whined in protest as I continue to shake with pain. " Then you should have anticipated my defense and chose to attack me a different way. Now get ready, you now have only three hours left" and with that, she walked off as if nothing happened.

After the pain finally went down, I stood up from my location on the ground and started to stretch out my body before heading to the back door. It was locked. _Did_ _that lady really just locked me out…_ blowing out a huge sigh I backed up from the door and jumped up to my window. Finally back into the house, I hurried off to get ready. After taking a quick shower and brushing my teeth, I went back into my room finding my belt bag with some much-needed things inside of it and some clothes to put on. There was a dark purple short sleeve hoodie dress, black shorts (that I put on underneath my dress), a pair of my dark gray gloves, and my dark grey with strips of purple colored boots. After putting on my clothes and shoes, but leaving off my weighs for once (seeing how I believed that taking the exam will bring on a challenge), I took my bag and went down the stairs while tying up my hair looking for my mom. I ended up finding her at the bottom of the stairs looking up at me, waiting.

"Soooooo," I began as I stopped in front of her, "what are we going to be doing for the next two hours and a half". "What do you think that we will be doing?" she asked right after while beaming at me. Thinking for a while I put out my honest thought of what I would LIKE to be doing "well… I think that since I'm about to leave and everything that I should take it easy and~" but she cut me off. "Hmmm, but that doesn't sound like something I would do…", she starts to lean towards me and smile wider. "Well yea, but … today is also my birthday… so… how about…" I sighed and slouched in defeat. _I won't win this_ …

"Ok then, no usual training then," she says happily standing straight again. I looked up only slightly to give her a look full of doubt, "really?" "Yup, birthday girl's request, right? In fact I actually have a present for you," and with that I instantly shot up straight and started to grin like crazy. "You really mean it?" I asked excitingly jumping up and down waiting as she pulled out a box that seems to have come out of nowhere, I know I'm acting childish but I'm still a child and I love getting presents!

Not even two seconds went by since she placed the present in front of me that the box was torn to shreds and what remains is only the present itself, which was…

"Oh my gosh mom… is this what I think it is?" I say with a blank expression on my face as I suddenly felt tears fall from my eyes. It was a picture of a young couple standing next to each other, the female smiling brightly while the male with a more reserved smile on his face. I looked up at my mom only to meet a soft smile on her face, "You have come a long way my love and I am so proud of you. The time has finally come so I thought it was time for you to have thi- " but before she could continue I jumped and attacked her into a huge bear hug which caused us to both tumble towards the floor. For a moment we just laid on the ground as she allowed me to hug her, then she suddenly got up and pull me my off. "Well with that out of the way we have two hours to get some last minute training in before we leave. Lets get started."

And with that she turned and walked away, leaving me to dry my tears and rush after her with a huge smile on my face now. Though not even a second passed when the smile fell from my face as I realized something.

 _Wait... I thought we weren't going to do our usual training..._

-At the ports to the blimps-

My mom stood before me with her long silvery-white hair in a neat bun… crying her eyeballs out. "Oh Ari, win this thing to the end or~" then suddenly she just stops and glares at me," don't even bother coming home, bye." And with that she left me standing there with my mouth wide open… _my mother_ , I thought as I felt a sweat drop _._

And before she was out of hearing range I yelled, "of course I will be just fine, I'm your daughter remember." And as she turned around I gave her a huge smile and she smiled back then we both turned and went our separate ways.

As soon as I got on the blimp it started to take off into the sky. As I walked around and looked at my surroundings I suddenly notice something, all of the examines here were all older men. That means no children my age and no girls or women, really?!

 _Ugh, oh well got to make the best of things, but first I've got to explore this place_ ,I thought excitingly being that it was my first time on a blimp. I searched around the blimp looking to find something fun to do.

Right when I was about to give up I went around the corner and found a huge window displaying all of the gorgeous views of outside.

"OH WOW!" I shouted as I ran over to the window, "look at this view, oh wow. I've never seen such a thing!" Suddenly I see a person in the corner of my eye, quickly turning around, I let out a breath of shock and surprised… _when did he get there… I couldn't even sense him…_

Upon a closer second look I noticed that he was a boy around my age with spiky silver hair, contrasting greatly to my own, along with an almost matching pale skin complexion. He wore a dark blue turtleneck under an almost lighter purple shirt with purple-ish blue shorts and light and dark purple ankle boots. His head was pointed downwards as if he was unknown to my presence. "Hey!" I said smiling as I approach him, wondering if he hasn't noticed me at all this whole time. "…," but I was only met with silence.

"Hey, isn't this cool?" I tried again a little louder this time thinking that maybe he just didn't hear me. This time he did acknowledge me and started to lift up his head to look at me. But I only met a killer strong glare pointed in my direction, his eyes a shade of dark blue.

For a split second, as hopeful gray eyes met with deadly blue ones, it made me flinch. Not out of fear but out of shock and …excitement?

I walked up next to him and as I got closer I could smell a faint scent of blood, but I sat down next to him as if it was nothing.

"Sooooo… what's wrong" I say as I relaxed a bit. His glare only intensified even farther and he seemed as if he was emanating a murderous aura now, with it increasing rapidly as the seconds ticked by. Without giving an answer he got up, picked up his skateboard, and started to walk away. Now with my curiosity growing just as fast, I got up to follow him.

After walking for maybe about three minutes I tried for a conversation again. "Hey, my name is Ari… I just turned 12 so this will be my first time taking the hunter exam how about you…no answer huh, well how old are you… your favorite snack… your favorite color… hmmm, can I at least get a name?"

Without much luck at any of the attempts, it only drove me harder to get him to talk. "Aww come on, what's your name?" I asked as I reached out my hand to poke him playfully.

And that's when it happened. Suddenly he strikes out his arm in my direction, catching me off guard, as I was barely able to dodge to the side before he attacked again. I was able to dodge a couple more of his hits before he stopped and I looked at him with a disappointed look. "Awww, why did you stop", I asked with a pout on my face. With his hand still in the out-stretched position that he attacked in, wait were those sharp claws always there, he slowly brought his hand down and looked at me now seemly bored. "I don't feel like it anymore", and with that he turned around and started to walk again leaving me to wonder what just happened. Quickly shaking my head I went to go and follow him again. When I finally caught up to him I just had to voice my question, "you don't want to fight anymore… why not?" "Didn't you hear me? I said I don't feel like it anymore." And with that, he turned his head and continued to walk off ignoring me.

Then the speaker of the pilot spoke: **Passengers on the blimp, there will be a storm on our way towards our destination and a very big one at that. You may experience slight shaking of the blimp, but nothing to be alarmed about. Thank you and have a wonderful trip.**

Ignoring the warning message, I continued to follow this strange boy. Why? I'm not too sure, but as I continued to follow him I found that this boy seriously didn't want to continue our fight. Now starting to think of a way to try and lure him into another fight, I went to reach out my arm again to touch him, hoping that this time he would react the same way again and attack like before. But nothing, he didn't do anything.

Now grabbing on to his shoulder, he stopped and I started to shake him and yet still I got no response. _This is odd, why is he acting like this_ , I thought to myself as I let go of his shoulder and he continued to move on. _Is he seriously really going to ignore me?_ Not one to have patience I jumped out in front of him and held out my hands, he finally stopped. "Why won't you fight me?!" I demanded as I started to feel frustrated and heated up. Now mirroring my annoyance the boy looked up and started to lose his own composure as well. "Well, why don't you find somebody else to fight? I'm pretty sure there are lots of other strong people here, go fight one of them". I then went back at him crossing my arms together, forcing myself not to smile at his reaction, "Well I just want to fight you, what's the big problem?" "I said that I don't feel like it didn't I, why are you so stubborn?" He asked as his fingers started to grow shap again.

"I just want to fight you!"

"Why?!" He finally shouted and I could see his fingernails fully turn sharp again. And with that I couldn't continue to hide my smile anymore,"because you're cute." And with that comment, I let a laugh as his whole entire face turned red suddenly and his fingers relaxed.

It took me a while for me to stop my fit of laughter, and I can imagine that he was close to just giving up on me and walking away. So I quickly stopped myself and cleared my throat a bit before I continued. "Sooo…" a couple more giggles escaped, "do you feel any better?" He just looked at me with a blank and confused look for a few seconds before finally responding.

"You did all of that just to make me feel better?"

"Yes of course I did?" I replied back in a "duh" kind of way. He just continued to look at me kind of confused, taking a few more seconds to reply. "But why would you go through the trouble of doing all that?" And now it was my turn to look at him confused, "well because we are friends of course." With that, I gave him a huge grin and brought my arms up to emphasize a gesture of friendship. He continued to look at me, breaking down the things that I said, and then his face totally transformed into a distrustful look. "We are not friends, we just met," he said with a matter in-fact tone and put his hands in his pocket and started to walk away again. _Well at least we are getting there_ , I thought to myself as I followed behind him skipping along.

"Of course we are friends now, we had a conversation already," I said as I smiled and continued to walk giddily next to him. "Just cause someone had a conversation with someone else doesn't mean that they have become friends," he said looking straight not even giving me one glance. "Well when it's with me, that is totally what it means. And how old are you?" I suddenly asked trying to make another point with my pointlessness. "Why should I even tell you, you were the one to come and trouble me to begin with," he said as he started to quicken his speed.

But that only got me to skip faster and smile brighter, _I love a good challenge_. "I won't leave until you tell me," I sang a little with a mischief smile forming on my face. "Twelve," he said this time finally stopping and looking my way, now figuring that he couldn't escape me. "SEE!" I suddenly yelled out, looking excited more than ever, causing him to get a bit shocked. "Especially when you're the same age as someone you have a greater chance at becoming friends." And with that logic of mine I suddenly reach out and grab his arm before he could register what was going on, "and now we are friends," I said as I tried to hug his arm. But he moved his arm away quickly and just looked at me weirdly, "Ari, you're weird." He said plainly, but I just got happy at the fact that he called, and remembered, my name. "Oh, so you did hear me before?" I said happily, my grin getting bigger as I continued to talk to him. "Of course I did, I have ears you know."

"And what shall I call you my new friend?"

"I'm not your friend."

"You are now." I sang out a bit just way too excited that we are getting some progress into a real friendship. "Hmm, you truly are a weird one, but I still won't tell you." And with that, he stuck out his tongue at me and started walking again. _Why do you keep on walking away from me when you know that you can't escape?_ I thought and ran in front of him again stop him. And this time, he was annoyed. "Why do you keep doing that? Leave me be." "Do you like a good fighting?" I asked suddenly getting his attention this time.

He stopped instantly in his tracks and turned to me giving me his full attention. "Yeah, why?" he asked a bit curious as to where this was going. "Well, how does a fight with me sound?" I asked with my grin growing.

"You'll die," he stated instantly, his face dropping as he looked at me in disbelief. I just smiled at him and grabbed his arm before trying to drag him away, "we'll just have to fight and see now won't we". And with another weird look from my strange new friend he eventually smiled and said:

"You know what, you're on".

 **What did you guys think? OMG who could possibly be Ari's strange new friend…I wonder (lol)**

 **Anyways, I'll try to keep this story constantly updated every weekish so don't be afraid to tell me what you think about my new take on this story in the comments.**

 **~Ari Amore Out ~**


	2. Let's hurry Up and Get Started

**Aria Amore Here!**

 **And omg guys thank you for the reviews and views and everything for my late self. I'm so sorry that this chapter has come out so late but thank you guys so much for never giving up hope and still favoriting and reviewing this story. And here... is the reward! And without further ado, the next chapter guys ^_^**

 **Oh and for anyone wondering what Ari looks like, I drew her on my DeviantArt!:** **www . deviantart (dot com)/ aria-amore/art/Ari-766243189**  
 **(Also she's the cover picture to this story!)**

 **Let's Hurry Up and Get This Thing Started**

After looking around the ship for a good area to fight in we finally found one. Well, I finally found one that I thought was perfect, my new friend couldn't care less though. It was clean and spacious, and had perfect lighting…. Well, almost perfect lighting. The blimp was shaking lightly and the lights started to flicker along with it.

"Wow, when they said that this was going to be a big bad storm they really meant it," I said as the blimp shook another time, this time almost making me lose my balance. I tumbled a bit more as the blimp shook another time before I finally regained my balance. "If you're having a hard time just WALKING on a blimp then I wonder how good your fighting skills will be," my silvered head friend said as I could see a small smirk lurking on his face.

"Just you wait," I say as I walk towards the other end of the room and start to stretch, "If you're not careful I might end up surprising you." I looked up at him from my spot to see that his smirk only grew, him now having a smug look on his face. "Hopefully you do," was all he replied as he placed his skateboard on the floor near the wall and took his position in front of me across the room.

"Now then, shall we begin? And you better not hold back on me!"

"I wasn't planning on holding back, you seem eager to die so why not give you what you want."

I only rolled my eyes at that and flashed an excited yet determined smile in his direction as I started to get into a more defensive position, "go ahead and go first, I can take anything you dish at me." He just shrugged at that and started to walk around me in a circle still wearing that smirk, "Ok, we'll see about that."

I could tell that the fight has started but all he did was walk around me in a circle…again and again… and again….and… wait… why is there ten of him now?! My eyes darted from one silver head to the next in a panic state. _What's going on here?_ I tried to calm myself down but before I could get a hold of myself one of the silver heads came forward and attacked me. He stabbed me pretty hard on my right shoulder-blade before I could get out of the way. Rolling off to the side, I jumped back from him to put a bit of space between us. I brought my hand up to hold my shoulder wound.

"Do you finally realize what you have gotten into?" my silver head friend said as he looked at me with a now evil smirk as he started to walk around me again. _Not again!_ Before he could continue I jumped into action. Forgetting my wound, for now, I lunged at him from my spot. He brought his arms up in defense, but I could tell that he wasn't expecting much from me by how relaxed his body was. When we made contact I gave him one powerful punch targeting the middle of his arms on purpose. He wasn't ready for that as his body was flung to the wall, leaving a huge crack behind him. "I think I'm more than prepared for what I have gotten myself into," I said crouched forward smiling wickedly back at him.

He gave off an annoyed look again as his eyes seem to transform into killer mode. "I wasn't even trying." He said while standing up and clearing the little pieces of the wall from on him like it was nothing. "Then let's get started for real this time, shall we?" I said completely forgetting about my wound and pouncing at him again.

He made his nail sharp again and started to strike at my quickly. I was ready for them this time and dodged back and forth. He almost got me one time but I was able to push his arm off to the side and I took that as my chance to attack. I started to throw wild punches in his direction but he was too fast. He dodged every attack but at the same time I dodged everything he threw at me too. He couldn't lay another attack on me and I couldn't lay another blow on him.

Hours passed with not much going on, the storm was starting outside though and only got worse. The blimp was shaking like crazy. At one point I even felt like the aircraft turned upside down for a moment. This only made the fight more interesting. When the blimp would go one way we would slide in that direction and continue throwing our kicks and punches at each other and the same thing would happen when it turned the other way. I could feel myself getting tired as beads of sweat drenched my body and I could see the same thing was happening to my friend. _He is super strong, I'm glad I met him._

Then out of nowhere, there was an announcement:

 **All those who haven't passed out yet, come to the main floor room. I repeat, all those who haven't passed out yet, come to the main floor room. Thank you.**

I jumped back from him, putting a bit of space between us. "Shall… shall we call a tie for now… until next time?" I asked between breaths while keeping my smile on my face. "I wouldn't call it a tie because I was totally about to win but sure." He said sounding as if he hasn't been fighting for the last few hours with me. I just let out a sigh of relief and finally collapsed on the floor in exhaustion. After a few minutes of catching my breath, I finally sat back up to see my little-silvered head friend leaning against the wall smirking at me.

"What?" I questioned him, "Why are you smirking like that?"

"Oh, no reason. No reason at all…. well other than the fact that you look like you were reaching your limit soon and that's why you decided to end the match between us just now." He said as he crossed his hands trying to look casual while doing it. _Well, he's not wrong, if we continued I probably would've ended up losing._

I just chuckled a bit and started to reach into my little belt bag to find my bandages. _He really knows how to pack a hard punch huh_. "Yeah, well maybe. You really are super strong, but I'm not about to admit defeat just yet." I said flashing another determined smile at him as I got up to my feet and started to take off my hoodie dress.

"HEY!" Before I could fully get off my dress I heard a shout. I brought my dress back down a bit to look and see where that noise came from. All I saw was my friend's hands up blocking his eyes from viewing me and a shade of red covering his face that greatly contrasted with his white pale face. _Cute_. "What's wrong?" I asked casually as I was about to continue taking off my dress again.

"STOP! you know that I'm a boy and you shouldn't be changing in front of me, right?!" He shouted at me as his face got redder. _Sooo cute!_ "It's ok, I'm wearing underclothes. See?" And with that, I took my dress all the way off showing underneath having on shorts and a tank top. I threw the dress on the floor and tried to strike a dramatic pose but in my attempt was met with immense pain from my shoulder. _Oh yeah, I'm hurt_. I slowly sat back down and grabbed my bandages and started to patch up my shoulder. I struggled for a few minutes before looking back up at the silvered hair boy, who was now sitting down patiently waiting.

"Can you-" I started but he was quick to interrupt.

"Nope!"

"But you didn't even know-"

"You were going to ask for my help for bandaging your wound, and my answer is no." And with that being his final answer he stuck out his tongue at me.

"Meanie… you were the one that did this to me." I mumbled to myself as I continue to struggle to wrap my shoulder wound correctly.

A few moments of silence passed between us for a while as I concentrated on wrapping my wound. After finally almost being finished with my wound I suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Will you finally tell me what your name is?"

"Killua." He said with not much resistance this time. "Killua huh? I like it. And as you know everyone just calls me Ari. Do you have a nickname too?"

"I guess my family calls me 'Kill'." He replied back cooly, looking off to the side as I finish off my wrapping and begin to put my dress back over my underclothes. "That's a cool name, can I call you that too?"

"No."

That quick, cold, response caught me by surprise for some reason. I stopped what I was doing and looked at him with concern. I guess he's either unhappy with that name or his family. Let's see which it is…

"Then how about I call you 'Luua'" I said as I replaced my concerned look to a more innocent smile look at him. His face dropped back to his neutral, more casual, face as he looked at me as if he was trying to figure me out. "BAAAAKA, just call me by my name: KIL-LU-A" I just shrugged and finally finished getting myself back together again. I stood up, readjusted my belt bag, and started on my way towards my lovely silver head friend Killua. Holding out my hands, I grabbed his hand and brought it up to my face. He looked startled as he turned his attention onto me, eye wide opened, and face slightly flushed.

"Well then 'Lulu'," I paused a moment to giggle to myself, "we need to get going or we might be late to whatever the captain called us for." It didn't take long for him to snatch his hand back and start walking towards his skateboard to pick it up. "Whose fault do you think it will be if we are late huh. And by the way, 'Lulu' is a terrible name, just call me Killua already" and with that being said Killua placed his other hand in his pocket and walked to the door. "You coming or you just gonna stand there all day staring."

Just now realizing that I was staring, I shook my head and put a smile back on my face. "Of course I'm coming!"

And with that, Killua and I made our way to the main floor. There weren't that many people that had made it through the storm it would seem. There was a bunch of guys that were lying all over the floors, passed out. And the ones that weren't passed out were holed up in the bathrooms, puking their guts out. When we got to the main floor room it was me, Killua, a clown, a weird guy with needles sticking out of his head, and I lot of other normal looking guys that looked like they were reaching their limit. _That last one with the needles creeps me out,_ I thought as I randomly shivered.

The captain, a bit of a chubby guy with a big red nose but a clean shaved face, came into the room and started to speak. "Listen up! There will be another big storm, bigger than the last one. We will be landing briefly for those who decide that they no longer wish to continue. All those who no longer wish to continue may follow me this way." And with that, the captain walked off with a trail of most of the room behind him. All that was left was the people of interest to me; Killua, that clown, and that creepy nail guy.

 _And here I was hoping that that creepy needle guy would've backed out._

After all the people that didn't want to continue left the room, the blimp landed briefly and took flight again, the captain then came back into the room. "So this is all that's left huh? Well congrats you guys have passed the pre-exam. Unlike my brother, darn that guy, I don't care why you want to be a hunter. I lied about there being another storm so we should be reaching our destination by daybreak, so keep yourselves busy until then." And with that, and a wave of a hand, he walked away.

 _That's it?_

Everyone in the room right now was silent so I took that as a cue to grab Killua's arm and get out of there. Tugging on his arm I managed to get him to cooperate and come along with me. We left the room and walked a good amount of distance before I finally said something. "Those two were super creepy, but that was so easy. I didn't even notice that it was one of their tests" I said to Killua finally shaking off the uneasiness that I was feeling from that room. "Aren't you happy we passed?" I asked him as I haven't yet heard any reaction from him about the whole thing.

"Well, yea, but it was too easy" He replied nonchalantly with his hand now free from me and in his pocket. "Hopefully it gets harder then."

We continued walking around trying to kill some time as we waited for some time to pass and for us to arrive at our destination. We finally just ended up stopping somewhere and resting for a bit until it was time to get off.

 **The Next Day**

As the blimp landed Killua and I made our way out. The other two weirdos came out as well, along with the captain himself. We landed at a typical airport. Outside of the airport was a little town on one side and a huge mountain forest on the other, and in the far distance I could just barely see an even bigger town. There were other blimps that landed next to us, looks like most of the applicants for the Hunter exam gets dropped off here. "Um, where are we?" I asked to no one in particular as we waited to know what to do next.

The captain was straight to the point with his answer, or lack of as he just gave out instructions instead of telling us where we were. Which I guess is better….

"You are to make your way to the outskirts of Zaban City and there you will be able to find the rest of your way to the true exam site. Since you guys passed my test I will give you a slight advantage. I recommend going the longer way and that's all I will say, so don't ask me what that's supposed to mean! You guys have till tomorrow morning to get there. Farewell and good luck to you all"

With those words, he left with his blimp leaving us there. Or just me and Killua there because the other two weird participants were nowhere to be seen.

I turned my attention to Killua, who stood next to me with his usual casual look, hand in pocket and all. "So where should we go to start heading to this Zaban place?" I questioned him as I turned my attention back in front of me looking for a good place to start our journey. "I guess we could look for a map, this is an airport you know." He said as he started to walk towards an area that has a map of the surrounding of the area. "Killulu, you're so smart." I said happily as I skipped along his side. He shivered at the nickname, even muttered something, but all and all didn't oppose this time. This time.

We found a map of the area and started to look to see where our next move would be to. "It seems that there are two distinct ways to get to Zaban City," Killua said as he continued to inspect the map further, "we could either go through the town way, which has a provided bus shuttles that'll take us straight there, or we could go through the forest which is expected to take about 4 days of hiking to get to the city... I think it's pretty clear which path we should take to get to the city."

We both nodded at each other and started to move towards the exit. Once out the airport building, we started to head off in the right direction…

"Wait why are you headed towards the forest? I thought the town way was the most logical way to get to Zaban." I said to Killua as I looked at him with confusion, "you said that going through the forest will take 4 days and we need to be to Zaban by tomorrow morning." He just nodded at that agreeing to what I said, which made me even more confused. "So why do you want to go through the forest way then?" I question even further feeling more confused the more I stood there for an answer. "If you listened to anything that the captain said then you would know that he gave us one particular advice, and that was to NOT take the easy option. The easier option, in this case, would be to take the bus straight to the city. So which means we don't go that way BAAkaa. The bus was probably rigged anyway, maybe even some traps in that town that it led through." And with that, he threw his skateboard on the floor and started to skate towards the forest pathway.

 _He's not even going to wait for me huh?_ "Hey, wait up! I'm coming! I'm coming!" I started to run after him, and after finally catching up changed to a more of a light jog by his side. "So how do you think we'll get there in time if this hike should take us about four days to get through?" I asked him as I kept up my light jog by his side. "I'm sure we'll get our answer soon, the captain wouldn't tell us to go this way if it was impossible to achieve. You don't have to follow me if you don't want to go this way."

"Of course I do, we're friends after all." I said putting back on my usual smile as I turned to look at him.

"And you'll follow your friends to your failure or even possibly to your death?" he questioned this time turning to me as well but stopping his movement on his skateboard which caused me to stop my jogging movements as well. "Well of course, though I'm sure that my friends will always have my back because I trust and believe in them."

"And I'm your friend?"

"Yup, my special friend Killulu." I replied back smiling brightly.

"Then you trust people too quickly Baka." And with that, he continued skating on his way forward, which just led me to more running after him. Going back to my light jog when I caught up to him I continued our conversation. "Its ok to trust people if they are trustable people." I said going back to my normal smiley face.

"And how do you know that they are trustable then?" He questioned, just not understanding where I am coming from.

"I just know, I have a gift." was my only replied as I felt smug. I decided to cross my arms and close my eyes too, looking away to seem cool. Though that ending up backfiring on me as I almost tripped on a stone. Almost. I caught myself with my other foot to keep myself balanced then went back to jogging lightly by his again.

"You're something else, but definitely a Bakkkaaa." _Why does he keep calling me that?_ I looked at him with a confused looked. He just continued to look forward with a smirk on his face.

"There you go again calling me a baka, what's with that?"

"Because you are one, plus since you gave me a name that I never agreed to then I shall give you one too. You are no longer Ari, you are now Baka. Nice to meet you." With that being said his smirk only widened and I could see him holding back a laugh. _Oh, now you find something to be funny, not cool._

I just decided to smile back at him after thinking for a moment. "You know what? It's ok! Nicknames only make the friendship even stronger." And just like that, we had nicknames for each other, or I guess personal favorite insults for one of us. But I'll take it!

We kept on going on at our pace for a while, with me doing a light jog and Killua on his skateboard. It felt like a couple of hours went on like this until we hit a dead end on the pathway. Or I guess more accurately it was a blockage. Killua and I stopped before this blockage of cloaked figures with masks on, and they seem to be holding what looks like instruments. _What is this?_

"Exciting" There was an older lady in the middle of all the cloaked figures, she didn't have a mask on but she seemed to be the leader of whatever this group is.

"Exciting," she said repeating herself. I looked over at Killua, who just shrugged at me showing me that he is just as confused as me.

"TIME FOR THE EXCITING MULTIPLE CHOICE QUIZ!" the old lady suddenly started shouting out and the cloaked figures started to play their respective instruments, to what seemed to be fanfare I guess.

 _Whatever this is…_ my smile began to grow again. _It's the start to something fun, I can tell._

 **The pre-exam is still in session how will Ari and Killua fair out!  
Find out next time on... Huntress Ari!**

 **Oh! Please tell me how did you guys like this chapter, was it good or just eh? I just LIVE off of you guys comments .  
Lol but thank you for reading!**

 **~Ari Amore Out ~**


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